Cleaning up the Environment

Richard F. Yates

If you live in Bethesda or if you take the Friendship Heights Metro, you are likely to see the lanky Richard F. Yates carrying a plastic bag in his right hand and picking litter with his gloved left hand. He moves at a furious pace along miles and miles of streets as he picks up pieces of paper, discarded cups, candy wrappers, and many types of litter that people have carelessly discarded.

I saw Mr. Yates a few days ago as he came by my street and I stopped him to ask what motivates him. Basically, Richard F. Yates is waging a one-man crusade to improve the environment, although he would like more people to join him. He would like people to stop throwing trash in the streets and to care more about our neighborhoods. He has talked to corporations to enlist their help by cleaning up the trash on their own grounds, and he has talked to the Montogmery County Police department to try to get better enforcement of anti-littering laws.

Mr. Yates talks about how the pollution of our streets ends up being washed into the Chesapeake basin and the negative impact that this has on the aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay. He would like to encourage people to care enough and volunteer to keep our neighborhoods free of litter and trash.